Editing Battle of Stalingrad (section)

==End of the battle==

===Operation Winter Storm===
{{Main|Operation Winter Storm}}
Manstein's plan to rescue the Sixth Army – Operation Winter Storm – was developed in full consultation with Führer headquarters. It aimed to break through to the Sixth Army and establish a corridor to keep it supplied and reinforced, so that, according to Hitler's order, it could maintain its "cornerstone" position on the Volga, "with regard to operations in 1943". Manstein, however, who knew that Sixth Army could not survive the winter there, instructed his headquarters to draw up a further plan in the event of Hitler's seeing sense.

This would include the subsequent breakout of Sixth Army, in the event of a successful first phase, and its physical reincorporation in Army Group Don. This second plan was given the name Operation Thunderclap. Winter Storm, as Zhukov had predicted, was originally planned as a two-pronged attack. One thrust would come from the area of Kotelnikovo, well to the south, and around {{convert|100|mi|km|order=flip}} from the Sixth Army. The other would start from the Chir front west of the Don, which was little more than {{convert|40|mi|km|-1|order=flip}} from the edge of the Kessel, but the continuing attacks of Romanenko's 5th Tank Army against the German detachments along the river Chir ruled out that start-line.

This left only the LVII Panzer Corps around Kotelnikovo, supported by the rest of Hoth's very mixed Fourth Panzer Army, to relieve Paulus's trapped divisions. The LVII Panzer Corps, commanded by General [[Friedrich Kirchner]], had been weak at first. It consisted of two Romanian cavalry divisions and the 23rd Panzer Division, which mustered no more than thirty serviceable tanks. The 6th Panzer Division, arriving from France, was a vastly more powerful formation, but its members hardly received an encouraging impression. The Austrian divisional commander, General [[Erhard Raus]], was summoned to Manstein's royal carriage in Kharkov station on 24 November, where the field marshal briefed him. "He described the situation in very sombre terms", recorded Raus.

Three days later, when the first trainload of Raus's division steamed into Kotelnikovo station to unload, his troops were greeted by "a hail of shells" from Soviet batteries. "As quick as lightning, the [[Panzergrenadier]]s jumped from their wagons. But already the enemy was attacking the station with their battle-cries of 'Urrah!'"

By 18 December, the German Army had pushed to within 48&nbsp;km (30&nbsp;mi) of Sixth Army's positions. However, the predictable nature of the relief operation brought significant risk for all German forces in the area. The starving encircled forces at Stalingrad made no attempt to break out or link up with Manstein's advance. Some German officers requested that Paulus defy Hitler's orders to stand fast and instead attempt to break out of the Stalingrad pocket. Paulus refused, concerned about the Red Army attacks on the flank of Army Group Don and Army Group B in their advance on Rostov-on-Don, "an early abandonment" of Stalingrad "would result in the destruction of Army Group A in the Caucasus", and the fact that his 6th Army tanks only had fuel for a 30&nbsp;km advance towards Hoth's spearhead, a futile effort if they did not receive assurance of resupply by air. Of his questions to Army Group Don, Paulus was told, "Wait, implement Operation 'Thunderclap' only on explicit orders!" – Operation Thunderclap being the code word initiating the breakout.{{sfn|Adam|Ruhle|2015|pp=132–33, 138–143, 150, 155, 165}}

===Operation Little Saturn===
{{Main|Operation Little Saturn}}
[[File:Operation Little Saturn-de.png|thumb|upright=1.4|Soviet gains during Operation Little Saturn]]

On 16 December, the Soviets launched Operation Little Saturn, which attempted to punch through the Axis army (mainly Italians) on the Don. The Germans set up a "mobile defence" of small units that were to hold towns until supporting armour arrived. From the Soviet bridgehead at Mamon, 15 divisions – supported by at least 100 tanks – attacked the Italian [[5th Infantry Division "Cosseria"|Cosseria]] and [[3rd Infantry Division "Ravenna"|Ravenna]] Divisions, and although outnumbered 9 to 1, the Italians initially fought well, with the Germans praising the quality of the Italian defenders,{{sfn|Müller|2012|pp=83–84|ps=: "During this phase, the Germans praised the steadfastness of Italian infantry, who held out tenaciously even in isolated strong-points, but eventually reached their breaking-point under this constant pressure."}} but on 19 December, with the Italian lines disintegrating, ARMIR headquarters ordered the battered divisions to withdraw to new lines.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Paoletti |first=Ciro |title=A Military History of Italy |publisher=Praeger Security International |location=Westport, Connecticut |year=2008 |page=177 |isbn=978-0-275-98505-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uz8eiwzEMHQC&q=Ariete+tanks+fight!&pg=PA182 |access-date=4 December 2009}}</ref>

The fighting forced a total revaluation of the German situation. Sensing that this was the last chance for a breakout, Manstein pleaded with Hitler on 18 December, but Hitler refused. Paulus himself also doubted the feasibility of such a breakout. The attempt to break through to Stalingrad was abandoned and Army Group A was ordered to pull back from the Caucasus. The 6th Army now was beyond all hope of German relief. While a motorised breakout might have been possible in the first few weeks, the 6th Army now had insufficient fuel and the German soldiers would have faced great difficulty breaking through the Soviet lines on foot in harsh winter conditions. But in its defensive position on the Volga, the 6th Army continued to tie down a significant number of Soviet Armies.{{sfn|Adam|Ruhle|2015|pp=159, 166–67}}

On 23 December, the attempt to relieve Stalingrad was abandoned and Manstein's forces switched over to the defensive to deal with new Soviet offensives.{{sfn|Adam|Ruhle|2015|p=153}} As Zhukov states, {{blockquote|The military and political leadership of Nazi Germany sought not to relieve them, but to get them to fight on for as long possible so as to tie up the Soviet forces. The aim was to win as much time as possible to withdraw forces from the Caucasus (Army Group A) and to rush troops from other Fronts to form a new front that would be able in some measure to check our counter-offensive.{{sfn|Zhukov|1974|p=137}}}}

===Soviet victory===
{{Main|Operation Koltso}}
The Red Army High Command sent three envoys while, simultaneously, aircraft and loudspeakers announced the terms of capitulation on 7 January 1943. The letter was signed by Colonel-General of Artillery Voronov and the commander-in-chief of the Don Front, Lieutenant-General Rokossovsky. A low-level Soviet envoy party (comprising Major Aleksandr Smyslov, Captain [[Nikolay Dyatlenko]] and a trumpeter) carried generous surrender terms to Paulus: if he surrendered within 24 hours, he would receive a guarantee of safety for all prisoners, medical care for the sick and wounded, prisoners being allowed to keep their personal belongings, "normal" food rations, and [[repatriation]] to any country they wished after the war. Rokossovsky's letter also stressed that Paulus' men were in an untenable situation. Paulus requested permission to surrender, but Hitler rejected Paulus' request out of hand. Accordingly, Paulus did not respond.{{sfn|Clark|1965|p=283}}{{sfn|Shirer|1990|p=929}} The German High Command informed Paulus, "Every day that the army holds out longer helps the whole front and draws away the Russian divisions from it."{{sfn|Adam|Ruhle|2015|pp=166, 168–69}}

[[File:Командующий войсками Донского фронта генерал-лейтенант Рокоссовский К.К. на боевой позиции в р-не г.Сталинграда. 1942 г.jpg|thumb|left|Commander-in-chief of the Don Front General [[Konstantin Rokossovsky]]]]

The operation launched on 10 January 1943 with what was the single largest bombardment of the war at that point, with nearly 7,000 field guns, launchers and mortars firing against German positions.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Overy |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Overy |date=2014 |editor-last=White |editor-first=Jon |editor2-last=Hoskins |editor2-first=Alex |title=All About History: Story of World War II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gGnUoQEACAAJ |access-date=2024-04-01 |magazine=All About History |publisher=Imagine Publishing |page=142 |isbn=978-1910-155-295}}</ref> The operation was likely the largest scale [[Economy of force|economy-of-force]] offensive conducted in [[military history]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Glantz |first1=David M. |author-link=David M. Glantz |title=Endgame at Stalingrad: Book Two: December 1942–February 1943, The Stalingrad Trilogy, Volume 3 |last2=House |first2=Jonathan M. |publisher=University Press of Kansas |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-7006-1955-9 |edition=1st |location=Lawrence, Kansas |pages=578 |language=en}}</ref> The Germans retreated from the suburbs of Stalingrad to the city. The loss of the two airfields, Pitomnik on 16 January 1943 and [[Gumrak]] on the night of 21/22 January,<ref>Deiml, Michael (1999). ''[http://feldpost.mzv.net/Zeitzeugen/Zeitzeuge_Kallweit_/Zeitzeuge_Deimel_/body_zeitzeuge_deimel_.html Meine Stalingradeinsätze (My Stalingrad Sorties)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080603000508/http://feldpost.mzv.net/Zeitzeugen/Zeitzeuge_Kallweit_/Zeitzeuge_Deimel_/body_zeitzeuge_deimel_.html |date=3 June 2008}}''. Einsätze des Bordmechanikers Gefr. Michael Deiml (Sorties of Aviation Mechanic Private Michael Deiml). Retrieved 4 December 2009.</ref> meant an end to air supplies and the evacuation of the wounded.<ref>{{harvnb|MacDonald|1986|p=98}}</ref> The third and last serviceable runway was at the Stalingradskaya flight school, which had its last landings and takeoffs on 23 January.<ref>Pojić, Milan. ''[http://www.naklada-ljevak.hr/knjiga/show/id/2079 Hrvatska pukovnija 369. na Istočnom bojištu 1941–1943.]''. [[Croatian State Archives]]. Zagreb, 2007.</ref> After 23 January, there were no more reported landings, just intermittent air drops of ammunition and food until the end.{{sfn|Adam|Ruhle|2015|pp=183, 185, 189}}

Despite the horrendous situation that German forces faced, both starving and running out of ammunition, they continued to resist, with transcripts showing that despite many German soldiers yelling "Hitler kaput" to avoid being shot while surrendering, the level of armed resistance remained extraordinarily high till the end of the battle.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hellbeck |first=Jochen |url=https://archive.org/details/stalingradcityth0000hell/mode/1up |title=Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich |publisher=PublicMedia |year=2015 |pages=224 |isbn=978-1610394963 |language=en}}</ref> In particular, the so-called ''HiWis'', Soviet citizens fighting for the Germans, had no illusions about their fate if captured. Bloody urban warfare began again in Stalingrad, but this time it was the Germans who were pushed back to the banks of the Volga. The Germans adopted a simple defence of fixing wire nets over all windows to protect themselves from grenades. The Soviets responded by fixing fish hooks to the grenades so they stuck to the nets when thrown.

On 22 January, Rokossovsky once again offered Paulus a chance to surrender. Paulus requested that he be granted permission to accept the terms. He told Hitler that he was no longer able to command his men, who were without ammunition or food.{{sfn|Shirer|1990|p=930}} Hitler rejected it on a point of honour. He telegraphed the 6th Army later that day, claiming that it had made a historic contribution to the greatest struggle in German history and that it should stand fast "to the last soldier and the last bullet". Hitler told Goebbels that the plight of the 6th Army was a "heroic drama of German history".<ref>{{harvnb|Kershaw|2000|p=549}}</ref> On 24 January, in his radio report to Hitler, Paulus reported: "18,000 wounded without the slightest aid of bandages and medicines."{{sfn|Adam|Ruhle|2015|p=193}}

On 26 January 1943, the German forces inside Stalingrad were split into two pockets north and south of Mamayev-Kurgan. The northern pocket consisting of the VIIIth Corps, under General [[Walter Heitz]], and the XIth Corps, was now cut off from telephone communication with Paulus in the southern pocket. Now "each part of the cauldron came personally under Hitler".{{sfn|Adam|Ruhle|2015|pp=201, 203}} On 28 January, the cauldron was split into three parts. The northern cauldron consisted of the XIth Corps, the central with the VIIIth and LIst Corps, and the southern with the XIVth Panzer Corps and IVth Corps "without units". The sick and wounded reached 40,000 to 50,000.{{sfn|Adam|Ruhle|2015|p=203}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-F0316-0204-005, Russland, Paulus in Kriegsgefangenschaft.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|left|[[Friedrich Paulus]] (left), with his chief of staff, [[Arthur Schmidt (general)|Arthur Schmidt]] (centre) and his aide, [[Wilhelm Adam]] (right), after their surrender, January 1943]]

On 30 January 1943, the 10th anniversary of Hitler's coming to power, Goebbels read out a proclamation that included the sentence: "The heroic struggle of our soldiers on the Volga should be a warning for everybody to do the utmost for the struggle for Germany's freedom and the future of our people, and thus in a wider sense for the maintenance of our entire continent."<ref>{{harvnb|Kershaw|2000|p=550}}</ref> The same day, Hermann Göring broadcast from the air ministry, comparing the situation of the surrounded German 6th Army to that of the Spartans at the [[Battle of Thermopylae]], the speech was not well received by soldiers however.<ref>{{harvnb|Beevor|1998|pp=|p=380}}</ref> Paulus notified Hitler that his men would likely collapse before the day was out. In response, Hitler then issued a tranche of [[field promotion]]s to the Sixth Army's officers, with Paulus made a ''[[Generalfeldmarschall]]''. In deciding to promote Paulus, Hitler noted that there was no record of a German or [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian]] field marshal having ever surrendered. The implication was clear: if Paulus surrendered, he would shame himself and would become the highest-ranking German officer ever to be captured. As a result, Hitler believed that Paulus would either fight to the last man or commit suicide.{{sfnm|1a1=Adam|1a2=Ruhle|1y=2015|1p=212|2a1=Bellamy|2y=2007|2p=549|3a1=Shirer|3y=1990|3p=932}}

On the next day, the southern pocket in Stalingrad collapsed. Soviet forces reached the entrance to the German headquarters in the ruined [[GUM (department store)|GUM department store]].{{sfn|Adam|Ruhle|2015|pp=207–08, 212–15}} Major Anatoly Soldatov described the conditions of the department store basement as such, "it was unbelievably filthy, you couldn't get through the front or back doors, the filth came up to your chest, along with human waste and who knows what else. The stench was unbelievable."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hellbeck |first=Joachen |url=https://archive.org/details/stalingradcityth0000hell/mode/1up |title=Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich |publisher=PublicAffairs |year=2015 |pages=251 |isbn=978-1610394963 |language=en}}</ref> When interrogated by the Soviets, Paulus claimed that he had not surrendered. He said that he had been taken by surprise. He denied that he was the commander of the remaining northern pocket in Stalingrad and refused to issue an order in his name for them to surrender.<ref>{{harvnb|Bellamy|2007|p=550}}</ref>

The central pocket, under the command of Heitz, surrendered the same day, while the northern pocket, under the command of General [[Karl Strecker]], held out for two more days.{{sfn|Adam|Ruhle|2015|p=215}} Four Soviet armies were deployed against the northern pocket. At four in the morning on 2 February, Strecker was informed that one of his own officers had gone to the Soviets to negotiate surrender terms. Seeing no point in continuing, he sent a radio message saying that his command had done its duty and fought to the last man. When Strecker finally surrendered, he and his chief of staff, [[Helmuth Groscurth]], drafted the final signal sent from Stalingrad, purposely omitting the customary exclamation to Hitler, replacing it with "Long live Germany!"{{sfn|Beevor|1998}}

Around 91,000 exhausted, ill, wounded, and starving prisoners were taken. The prisoners included 22 generals. Hitler was furious and confided that Paulus "could have freed himself from all sorrow and ascended into eternity and national immortality, but he prefers to go to Moscow".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Victor|first=George|title=Hitler: Pathology of Evil| publisher=Brassey's Inc.|location=Washington, DC|year=2000|page=208|isbn=978-1-57488-228-5|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=JnB7cM1zUG4C&q=george+victor|access-date=23 August 2008}}</ref>